


Raised Wrong

by desert_bluffs_and_me



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Blood, Cecil Has A Third Eye, Cecil Has Tentacles, Gen, Look I know y'all are just picky about that stuff, and Kevin too, oc just for plot again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2019-11-14 13:28:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 19,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18053384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desert_bluffs_and_me/pseuds/desert_bluffs_and_me
Summary: Just because someone wants to fix something doesn't mean they have the right skills. Sometimes the wrong tools are used. Pieces are forced to fit. A brief escape cannot undo the damage waiting to be used as a weakness once again. After having his life tore apart, young Kevin is being raised by a group that perhaps don't have his best interests at heart...[Short sequel to 'Shattered']





	1. The Prologue Of A Different Story

**Author's Note:**

> Please see my fic 'Shattered' for more context.

For a while, Lauren’s attempt to help him didn’t seem to do anything at all. Kevin went through his day barely awake. His feet shuffled along the floor and food regularly missed his mouth, though he were still able to do most activities himself. It was hard to have a conversation with him that didn’t end up with him mentioning blood. Often he would just mutter it over and over. For the patients that had no idea what had happened to him in the Correctional Room, this was a strange new symptom of what they had assumed to be a very ill little boy. For Lauren, it was vaguely worrying and a little annoying.

* * *

Eventually, more life seemed to come to the child. Kevin stopped feeling like he was living in a vague dream, and started to realise he was alive again. He woke in the middle of the night and smelled blood. This was not the faint scent he was used to. This was a powerful, assaulting, stench. It was in his nose and tasted on the tip of his tongue. Kevin loved it.  
  
He sat up and took a deep breath through the nose. This unfortunately broke the spell and the smell. He had been imagining it after all. The lack of the smell, and the wet warmth that came with the touch of blood perhaps? Kevin felt empty. Something here was missing and he assumed it was the blood.  
  
The child curled up, knees up to his face. He hit his head against his knees over and over. It seemed to help a little, dispersing the sudden build up of tension. Something was wrong, he just didn’t know what it was. He hit his head on the area of his currently stitched up third eye and saw spots. He stopped what he was doing. Kevin reached up to touch the stitches. What was this? He didn’t remember. A strange, semi-yielding lump...it was probably best not to touch it.  
  
Kevin got up from the bed. He crossed the few steps to the door and his finger went to the call button. He stopped. The Orderlies couldn’t give him what he needed this time. Or could they? The pills. The pills always helped him sleep.  
  
Kevin pushed the button. Less than half an hour later he was asleep.

* * *

 “Good morning, Kevin. It’s nice to see you looking a little more alive.” He pulled out the other chair at the table. He set the chair horizontal to Kevin’s own, away from table. It gave him a feeling of control and formality even in this kind of setting.  
  
“I don’t understand what you mean, doctor.” Kevin replied. He set down his breakfast utensils.  
  
“You wandered somewhere you shouldn’t have. There you slipped and fell on a recently polished floor. You hit your head fairly hard.” Franco replied.  
  
“Oh. I don’t really remember that.” Kevin folded his hands on the table and looked at them rather than the doctor.  
  
“Exactly. Your bad behaviour set your treatment back a fair amount. After all, how can you get better if you can’t remember what you’ve already been taught?” Franco reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a notepad and pen. “Speaking of which, why don’t you tell me what you do remember?”  
  
Kevin looked up. “Um, I remember my name is Kevin. I remember you, and Lauren. I remember that I’m here to get better from...something. I remember the book about the Smiling God…”  
  
Franco made notes the entire time that Kevin spoke. There wasn’t much that the child did remember. When given questions about specifics such as family, home life, how he got there and what happened before his accident, Kevin merely shrugged.  
  
“You don’t seem particularly worried about your memory gaps.” Franco replied.  
  
“I think it’s the pills. I’m never upset when I’ve taken them. I don’t want to feel upset about this.” Kevin replied, biting his lower lip.  
  
“I’ll make sure you’re kept in good supply. Even so, you don’t have to worry about not remembering. You will be returned to your family when you are better, and they will help you remember.” Franco said. He closed his book and put it away. “Until then, I think you’ll be fine going back to the sun room and your regular therapy sessions.”  
  
“Really? I’d love to get out of the room. I don’t wanna spend a lot of time just in here, it’s boring.” Kevin smiled and his smile seemed a little wider than usual. It pleased Franco. Perhaps the trauma was a good thing. Perhaps it would make everything easier.  
  
“I’ll send an Orderly along shortly. In the meantime, don’t pick at the stitches on your head. They’re made of a poly-blend alloy that I made myself. It doesn’t rust, has a low chance of infection, lasts for decades without losing strength...and it’s keeping your tumour at bay with it’s medicinal properties.” The last fact came slower than the others.

“Oh wow, that’s amazing.” Kevin felt that some of that seemed wrong, but he didn’t know enough about this kind of thing to dispute it.  
  
“Yes it is. It’s only one of things I’ve spent my life developing so that I can improve the way things are run. All things. Medicine, Service, Office Work, Sanitation. Nothing  is perfect because people aren’t perfect, but they can be made perfect. If people are perfect and have perfect tools, then the world will be perfect. Everything will run much more efficiently. Everyone will be so much happier. Then, when the end comes, we will have become our best selves.” Franco said all of this unprompted, but seemed to wait for some kind of applause or further reaction.  
  
Kevin gave him another smile. “That sounds great. I’ll help any way that I can.”  
  
“Will you? I’ll keep that in mind.” Franco flashed a rare smile. It still chilled Kevin. "I'll see you later, Mr Palmer...Kevin." He corrected himself. He wanted to develop some kind of stronger bond with Kevin. One that was still appropriate, but would get Kevin under his confidence. His methods were brutal, blunt, to the point. That didn't go well with most people's emotional sensibilities. Franco had started to see that. If Kevin had simply trusted him then he wouldn't have wanted to wander into places he wasn't allowed. It had been a hard decision, nights of thinking. It went against everything he'd ever done before. He'd built up all these walls around himself. He'd told himself that since it was difficult for him to connect with people, he shouldn't try and do it at all. Franco told himself that he wouldn't have to if he became a doctor because that would be unprofessional. So long as he was good at what he did, no one would criticise his blunt approach. That had all been true. Until now. Until he saw how Kevin lit up to even being called by his name in a much more friendly tone. Yes. He wanted this child trusting him completely, as though they were friends.  
  
_But we will not,_ Franco thought, _ever be friends._

* * *

 Kevin’s first group session of the day was with Dr.Ramirez today. He vaguely remembered her gripping his hands and whispering to him about how they were bonded now and how they all trusted him to do good for the cause. It made his skin feel suddenly prickly with anticipation.  
  
“It’s so good to see Kevin back here with us.” Once more, Dr.Ramirez spoke as though she and the circle of patients were one hivemind. Nobody objected to this. They smiled and nodded. She knew exactly how they thought and felt. They believed and trusted this. “You weren’t making too much progress before, but I believe that a little clearing of the mind has done you good.” She walked around the circle of chairs now. She looked each person in the eyes as she did this. Kevin met her gaze for the first time since he’d come there. It made her large smile even larger.  
  
“You know, they often accuse us of brainwashing people here.” She spoke once she’d made a single loop. Dr. Ramirez continued to walk as she talked. “They accuse us of brainwashing our patients, our brothers and sisters who need our help.”  
  
“No!” Someone called.  
  
“It’s not true!”  
  
“Oh, but it is true.” Dr, Ramirez stopped only when she reached her chair again, allowing the dissenting voices to rise a little. Now everyone was silent. She seemed to stare at her chair for a long time. Dr.Ramirez turned around, hands displayed wide. She was looking directly at Kevin. “We are washing all the bad thoughts from your brains. All the laziness and the lies that your brain tells you, washed away. All the intrusive thoughts and unfriendly voices that try to steer you wrong, washed away. All the hopelessness, the paranoia, the depression, washed away. Washed in the light of the Smiling God!” This brought cheers.  
  
“Now, let us dance in celebration of the truth!”  
  
It was the same song that Kevin had gotten used to before. ‘We know we’re happy, so we’re doing this particular action, because of that fact’. That was the gist. Kevin was never able to remember how many verses it had. He didn’t think there were many, but it was hard to recall. After a while of dancing, his whole body didn’t feel real. His body felt light, he was smiling and didn’t know it. This felt good. Everyone was smiling at him, everyone looked happy to see him back.  
  
When Dr.Mendoza had come to him, Kevin had pretended that his lack of memory didn’t disturb him. This had been his way to make sure he wasn’t locked in his room much longer. Kevin remembered that they had kept in his room for a long time when they thought he wasn’t well enough. He had remembered his name. He had not been familiar with what he looked like. That night he had woken fully, before he took the pills the Orderly gave to him, Kevin had stood in the bathroom. He had stood there looking into the mirror and taking in all of his features.  
  
‘This is me’ he had thought. ‘This is what I look like. This is my face, my eyes, my hair. I look like this, this is me.’ and for no reason in particular he thought. ‘I will remember this for as long as I like. No matter how I change, I will remember that this is what I look like.’ and those words held powerful meaning to his mending mind.  
  
Kevin had taken his pills, but for a while had laid there still, not sleeping. He’d laid there confused that he couldn’t remember any of his family (though he remembered the concept of family). He couldn’t remember a world outside of this room. He couldn’t remember the doctors face, until he’d seen it again and heard his voice. At that time he’d simply vaguely remembered what Dr.Mendoza had looked like. Hair colour, clothing, some actions he’d made. Kevin had cried. His memory was in fragments, some only shapes and colours that stabbed like shards of glass but didn’t show anything clear.  
  
In this room things were different. In this room with all the happy, smiling, dancing people he felt that he had a family. Maybe it didn’t matter that he didn’t remember his family. Like Dr.Mendoza said (he didn’t think it would be ever right to ask for the doctors first name let alone use it) once he was better he would go home to them whether he remembered them or not. Still, he made a mental note to ask for some details.  
  
Kevin sat down, exhausted but full of good feeling. When people were asked to speak of their weeks troubles, Kevin opened up and talked about his anxiety over not remembering things. The group of people sympathised, they too had amnesia for various reasons. That is why Kevin was in this group now after all. They talked about memory techniques, how to concentrate on how much was remembered instead of wasn’t, in order to stay hopeful. They were given large sheets of paper to write or draw their memories on. Kevin’s looked more full than he thought when he really broke down all that he remembered. Kevin smiled.

* * *

 Lauren hurried over to him and hugged him to her firm chest as tightly as possible. Kevin took it as much as he could, before having to wriggle free so he could breathe.  
  
“Sorry Kev, lets come sit down. I’ve missed you so much. Of course, I haven’t been around here too often myself.” Lauren approached their usual spot. Someone was already sitting there, but their scurried away hurriedly when they saw who was approaching. Kevin wondered why people respected Lauren so much. Or feared her. No, respect. It was respect. “You see, I finally got a place of my own. It’ll be the perfect place to rest up after...well, some things still need fixing but my mind isn’t one of those things!” She laughed. “Oh but you, you’re so alive and vibrant again! Tell me everything that’s gone on.”  
  
“Oh well, not much?” Kevin replied. He pulled his legs up onto the chair. It was comfier this way. “I had a group session again so I could talk about how I don’t remember everything. We made a map of all the things we did remember and I saw that I had a lot more than some. It made me feel better. I missed having you in the group though.”

“I’m flattered to hear that Kev, I really am.”  
  
“Dr.Mendoza saw me too. He explained about my tumour…”  
  
“Ah yes your...tumour…”  
  
“And he talked about how I slipped on a mopped floor somewhere but…”  
  
“But?”  
  
“But like...I remember blood? Lots of blood. All over me. I think I was playing in it. I was playing in someone’s blood and I don’t know why or where it came from.”  
  
“That must be...not so happy for you.”  
  
“No no, that’s just the thing! It’s a great memory, a happy one! I’m having so much fun but...I don’t know where it fits in with anything.” Kevin had come alive as he talked about the blood, but sank back once he were done.  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Lauren placed her hand over his. “As time goes by, you’ll remember exactly what you’re supposed to. Struggling to make connections now is only going to distract you.”  
  
“Distract me from what?”  
  
“You silly goose, you know what.” Lauren looked away from him. Kevin got the feeling she didn’t know either.  
  
“Oh yeah I was gonna ask. Did you...did you see my family when they brought me in? What were they like, how many was there?” Kevin asked.  
  
“Your family? I’m sorry Kev, I didn’t see them when you came in. Ask Dr.Mendoza, he’ll know. But don’t be too worried if he decides it’s better that you don’t know. You have to trust his decisions, he is a doctor after all.” Lauren said.  
  
“Right, of course, ok.” Kevin muttered. He was disappointed. That was still something he could feel, but the feeling was lessened by the drugs coursing through his veins.


	2. To belong

Even though he had been promised a session with the doctor, Kevin did not see him for quite a while. It got to the point where he could no longer content himself with saying that the doctor was busy, and started to feel genuinely forgotten.

The attention and love he felt from the others there helped a lot. He didn’t remember what it had been like before. He didn’t remember if he’d felt this close to them before. That mattered less and less each day. Kevin felt excited each morning he got up. He ate his breakfast, took his pills, joined in the morning dance and spent his days talking to his new family. They talked about the Smiling God, and what they would do for It when they left the hospital. The only time that Kevin felt like he wasn’t included was when they would talk of Home.

Not everyone here had memories of home. Kevin was one of them. It would be selfish to expect those that did to never speak of them. The Sun Room was open to everyone. They were a community here. Mostly the talk was about how they wanted to bring the Smiling God to their family, so that they too could be helped. It had become the common consensus there that just because their family members didn’t have any mental conditions, that didn’t mean they didn’t need saving. Kevin agreed. He couldn’t wait to meet and save his family.

No, it was not that kind of talk that made him feel a sense of longing almost more powerful than any of the drugs. It was when they simply reminisced about what it was like to have a family at all.

“I was raised by my grandparents.” One said. “It’s a long story as to why. When I get out, I want to reconnect with my mother and father again and all of the siblings I’ve barely seen. I think I’d be ready for that now.”

“My mother always said that what I needed was religion in my life, she’ll be so happy I found it!”

“My dad still bakes me a cake for my birthday, even though we live in different towns. It’s always the same cake, his own secret recipe he says.”

“My sister is actually a top chef, I wonder if she could figure it out…?”

“Well I can share it with you but she’d have to be here to get it.” And they would laugh and interject slithers of information into each others stories.

Kevin missed Lauren. When she was here, she didn’t mind taking him off to the side to talk about something else. She had her own life now. Each day she looked a little healthier and a little happier.

“Oh Kevin, you shouldn’t be worried about me.” Lauren had said the last time she’d been in. “I’ve finally gone back to school, just like I always wanted.”

This rang a bell to Kevin. Something about school? Was it his school he was trying to remember? No, something about someone else going off to school...He put it aside.

“What kind of stuff are you learning?” Kevin asked.

“Well, I’m brushing up on my maths again, but I’m in business at the moment. One day, I’m going to be the first CEO of my kind in the area.” Lauren boasted.

“Of...your kind?” Kevin didn’t quite understand. Lauren gave him one of her wide and mysterious smiles. That was a sign that she was never going to say and he just shouldn’t ask.

* * *

 That had been three days ago now. Kevin sat in the Sun Room, reading a book slowly. Part of the slowness was because of Kevin’s low reading ability. Part of it was the distracting thoughts about Dr.Mendoza. Then, as though summoned by those thoughts, an Orderly called out; _“Kevin Palmer to see Dr.Mendoza.”_

Kevin put down the book and followed the machine to Dr.Mendoza’s office. Kevin put on a smile and opened the door. The doctor was typing busily as he entered. Kevin approached the desk and waited. Front and centre was a name plaque that said ‘Dr.F.Mendoza’ and letter arrangements that Kevin assumed were what the doctor was qualified in.

“Sit down.”

Kevin sat in the plain chair at his side of the desk. There was no cushion, just hard plastic on the seat and back. It was the kind of chair that demanded you sat upright and to attention just to stay comfortable. Eventually, Franco stopped typing. Kevin had learnt his first name by accident when he'd heard Lauren talking to him, and used it exclusively in his head. He felt that the doctor would not be happy to hear it out loud coming from a patient.

Franco did not apologise for having him called in but remaining busy once he arrived. The doctor simply folded his hands over the desk and stared at Kevin for a few long seconds. The clock on the wall seemed to tick deafeningly during those seconds.

“How are you doing, Kevin?”

“Doing great, sir.”

“Remembered anything more?”

“No, well, kind of?” Kevin tried hard not to fidget. He owed a lot to the doctor, and didn’t want to appear rude or eager to leave. Franco said nothing. If you allow someone at least ten seconds to think (especially but not only if you’ve asked them a question) that’s usually enough time for them to process it. It seems a long time when you’re waiting it out. Too long. Too silent. It got results more often than not though. “Lauren mentioned that she was going back to school and I got a kind of...not really a memory, but like I’d heard it before but from someone else? Someone else talking about going to school? That’s it.”

“Well, school is an important part of all young people’s lives.” Franco replied. Good. The therapy here _was_ legitimate. As well as the sessions to help everyone become closer to the Smiling God, Franco did have very good psychiatrists under his employment. At this time, he didn’t want them to be too good. He wanted to keep Kevin at least somewhat in the dark. His testing would go a lot more smoothly that way. In the end, Kevin’s trauma had become a positive. “I’m happy with the progress you are making, Kevin. I have nothing but good news from those whose sessions you attend and-...”

Kevin had started to tune out. He’d noticed a plaster on one of the doctors fingers. He must have cut himself at some point. There was a dark patch on the padding where the blood had spread or was still spreading. Spread? Spreading? Fresh? Old? Warm, red, sticky, comforting, wonderful, _blood, blood, blood_ …

“Kevin, are you listening? The least you could do amidst my compliments is pay attention.” Franco frowned. The frown was a delicate and subtle knitting of the brows. Barely perceptible, and yet somehow more effective for it. Kevin snapped back to attention, but his eyes flickered to the hurt finger. He wanted so badly to tear off the plaster and see the blood inside. Feel it with his fingers. Taste it on his tongue.

Franco noticed the direction of the child's quick glances and placed the hand under the table. This fully brought Kevin back to him. Their eyes met for a moment. It was funny, and likely a trick of the light, but Franco was sure that Kevin’s eyes were getting darker the longer he stayed here. Or at least, they had been since they’d closed up his third eye. It wasn’t the darkness of the iris’ that was strange. It was the fact the whites themselves had creeping fingers of darkness rounding their corners.

“I’m sorry, doctor.”

“It’s quite alright. Kevin, I’m going to do a quick eye exam. Any questions whilst I do this?” Franco stood up, taking a penlight out of his top pocket.

“I do have a question, but it’s not about the test.” Kevin said.

“Go on.”

Kevin looked nervous. He licked his lips and then asked “What is my family like?”


	3. Please tell me

“Now Kevin, you know that the subject of your family is a sensitive one. I wouldn’t want to upset you by talking about something you don’t remember. It’s best for you not to dwell on it.” Franco replied.  
  
“I’ll be ok, I promise! I just want to know who is in my family. I want to be able to think about who they are and what they might be like.” Kevin fidgeted in the chair now. It was so uncomfortable. He just wanted something to hold onto. He would make it all up if he had to. He would create a grand play in his head, but he needed to know who the characters were.   
  
“Alright.” Franco brought his other hand back up. His natural pose was with his hands laced together. Kevin fiddled with his own hands now and didn’t look up. That pesky third eye, which would always look at him no matter what, shifted under the closed lid to do just that. How Franco detested it. “You have a father, two brothers, and a sister.” He made this up off of the top of his head and privately cursed.   
  
“Oh wow.” Kevin smiled to himself. That was quite a lot of family. “My dad is a single parent, how come?”   
  
“No more questions, Kevin.”   
  
“But-”   
  
“Kevin, I’ve already said more than I want to. Now, if this starts to play on your mind and cause low mood, you must tell an Orderly so they can up your dose.” Franco replied.   
  
“I...yeah, ok. Thank you, doctor. I mean sir. Doctor sir.” Kevin felt flustered and took Franco’s silence as a sign to leave. This decision benefited both of them immediately. Kevin returned to his room and laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He felt that the doctor really didn’t understand what was going on with him. Kevin felt a raw craving for information about himself.   
  
When he had first woken up, he’d barely remembered his own name, let alone his own face. Kevin had stared at his image in the bathroom mirror, running his fingers over the features of his face. His curved nose, the thick lips, the dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. He’d inspected his hair and eyebrows, his ears and cheeks. Everything seemed fake, like he could rip off the skin and see something more recognisable underneath. When he’d tried to think of what that would be, he’d only seen red, and smelled that familiar and dizzying scent of blood.

His amnesia was slight, it seemed. The more he looked the more he felt that he did remember this face and body. It was simply everything else he had a hard time grasping. All he had was his first name, his physical body, and the memory of playing in blood. For the latter, he couldn’t even remember why he’d done it until he was told in that vague kind of way Franco had. Kevin felt more whole now than he did then. He was happier because everyone supported him here. His mind was filled up with the new memories of his being here. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel empty about what was outside of this place. Franco’s half-answer hadn’t really improved matters any.   
  
Kevin ran his fingers over the stitches on his head. These had been a great source of frustration ever since he’d noticed them. He wished he could rip them out. Surely whatever was underneath wasn’t worth this constant irritation.   
  
That was just the thing, too. Though he was happy all of the time, he felt irritated a lot too. There was something itching and biting away under the skin, making him feel restless and sometimes grumpy at others for no reason. Now he felt this irritation towards how Franco refused to tell him more. He didn’t want to stay here forever, nobody here did. He was done feeling frightened about what was outside of here, making him feel dependent on staying even though lack of progress disappointed everyone here. They’d taught him that hate was an abomination of a word, but he did hate all of this frustration and periods of stagnation. Hated it, hated it, _hated it_ …

* * *

Another patient, a young woman named Lucy, was passing when she saw Kevin through his open door. The boy was sat up in bed, rocking and groaning, hands to his eyes. Lucy did not make very many mistakes. Her obsessive perfectionism demanded that she didn’t. Coming into the room and putting her hand on Kevin’s shoulder however was a mistake.   
  
It happened within seconds. Kevin grabbed Lucy’s hand and bit into it. He bit hard and deep until he could taste her blood in his mouth and he didn’t let go even as she tried to pull away. He didn’t let go even as she hit him. But then she hit the closed lump on his forehead and a spike of pain shot into Kevin’s skull. He let go and Lucy wheeled away, blood poured over her hand in a brilliant crimson cascade.   
  
“Why Lucy, that makes you look so pretty…” Kevin told her, not sure where the words came from. She stared at him for only a moment longer before leaving at a run. Kevin sat there, blood smeared in one corner of his mouth. He sat in the puddle she had left and smeared it with his fingers. He sat and he stared at the empty doorway for a long time. 

* * *

Franco watched Kevin go and then started to tap the fingers of both hands against his desk. It helped him to think. Why had he lied to the boy? To shut him up? No. If he wanted people to shut up, he told them to do it and they did. That was how things worked here and within his company. Perhaps Lauren’s fondness for the boy was wearing off on him too.   
  
He did intend to integrate Kevin back into society at some point. Whether that was as a vessel of the Smiling God, or started anew, entirely depended on how Kevin responded to his treatment. It didn’t matter if he had to be re-educated. Once the power of the Smiling God entered a person's head, it made them all the more susceptible to it again. Kevin could live for a good long while without ever thinking of it, or any of the things he would be taught here (productivity, happiness, smiling) and then Franco could take him back when he was needed. Most people were expendable to him in his search for higher purpose and advancement of the human race. Franco always thought of it as most because some people were just better than others. Himself, for example, and the lovely Lauren. Lauren in fact was one of many people who showed that the human body was simply a vessel for the rich electrical system inside that formed the human mind. The body existed to serve that mind and so, could and should always be changed to fit it, especially if a person's lifetime happiness and function were on the line.   
  
One day he’d tell her he loved her. One day when he was rich and powerful and above all of the nonsense that came with that simple feeling. He even dared to think he’d leave his company to her, provided she worked for him endlessly until the time of his death.   
  
Franco snapped himself out of thoughts of Lauren and thought again about how he’d solve his little problem. After a moment, he picked up the phone. “Jeffery I’m calling in a favour. I need you to adopt some children for me two boys and a girl, all older than fourteen...and one more will come your way from me when he’s ready. You will train them to pretend they’re all related, use the control collars if you must...yes I know they’re still in Beta, just do it. Don’t ask questions. I’ll call you when ready, until then, take care of them. You know how to use the expense account, yes? Money is never an issue. Good man. I’ll contact you when you’re needed again.”   
  
He had no sooner put the phone down when one of the few human nurses opened the door and poked his head in. “Sir, sorry to bother you, but you told everyone to tell you if that Palmer kid ever did something strange...well, he just bit someone.”


	4. The reason

Patients here were not always violent. In fact that was most of the time. Patients here could be violent. That was only some of the time.   
  
Kevin was not one of the patients known to be sometimes violent. He had no known triggers, no history to compare this to. This was a new symptom. Except...Franco was fully aware that in terms of his mental state, Kevin had no diagnosed condition. Developmental delay was pretty much all they had been working on, until the amnesia. Biting people because you can’t remember your past is not a common symptom at all.   
  
Lauren had said that she’d deal with the trauma that Kevin had faced. She had her ways, she said. Franco wondered what her strange hypnotism had really done to Kevin. As he walked towards the boys room, he couldn’t help but think about how Kevin had stared at the plaster on his finger. Had blood been on his mind even then, or had the idea of it being there triggered a need to see it?   
  
The buzz of a new challenge kept Franco’s spirits high. What a fascinating child.   
  
They had moved Kevin to a room that had previously been a padded cell but had been humanely converted into a room where they were simply no items for a person to hurt themselves or others with. Kevin was not restrained. He sat upon a beanbag chair and wished the room had a window. There was something about the clinical whiteness of the room that really disturbed him. One of the many feelings he got that he couldn’t explain and at times, didn’t want explaining. He looked up instantly when Franco came in. An orderly stood behind him, and it stayed by the door as Franco approached. He chose to stay standing.   
  
There was a spot of blood on Kevin’s shirt. Franco wondered if the child had noticed and if he liked it. Thoughts of various experiments that could now be conducted were pushed to the side for a moment. Franco said nothing. He watched Kevin’s face and got what he wanted a lot sooner than he expected. Tears.   
  
“You bit someone today.”   
  
Even though Kevin was a child, Franco refused to do the usual thing that people did with children. Asking them what they had done and if they were sorry. He knew what Kevin had done. He knew from the tears that the child was sorry, even if he were only sorry because he was getting in trouble for it.

Kevin said nothing. He curled up in the beanbag and it shifted under him. The sound of the beans shifting was oddly loud and somehow funny. Neither of them laughed. 

“Usually, privileges would be revoked. You are, after all, mentally competent enough to know what you were doing.” Franco said.   
  
“No, I-!” Kevin started, then bit his lip. He’d noticed the spot of blood on his shirt and scratched at it absentmindedly.   
  
“Go on.”   
  
“I mean, I was still...me, I was still there. I didn’t black out or...but it was like, it was like I also wasn’t doing it too. I said things and did things and they surprised me too. I didn’t want to hurt her. I don’t want to hurt anyone here.” Kevin said.   
  
“Then why bite her?”   
  
Franco was getting closer now. He bore down on the child like a monolith. In his dark eyes, Kevin said the burning cold light of a Smiling God.   
  
“I don’t know.”   
  
“Why did you bite her, Kevin?”   
  
“I said I don’t know!”   
  
“Why did you bite her?”   
  
“ _Listen to me, I don’t know, I just did, I just did ok!_ ”   
  
Franco asked and asked. He asked without changing the tone or infliction of his speech. He seemed to grow, filling the room with his very essence. It was just him and his voice and Kevin was small. Underneath them, Kevin swore he could hear the sound of movement. There was a rumbling down there, and the sound of something chewing. Something large. He felt sure it was under Franco’s control and if he didn’t answer then whatever it was would burst out and devour him before his time.   
  
“Why did you bite her?”   
  
“Because I wanted to see her bleed, ok!” Kevin’s crying was certifiably sobbing now. He wiped at his eyes, angry at the moisture there. It had started to make him wheeze and he coughed through the tears and through that admittance of truth. Franco took a step back. Kevin felt like he could breathe again.   
  
“This is not the first time you have hurt someone, Kevin. The last time, the other person fought back and you ended up hurt enough to lose your memory. Whatever this obsession is, we must test it and contain it. Do you understand?” Franco once again lied as easily as a snake slithers through the grass.   
  
Kevin nodded. His face felt hot now. His eyes felt like they were throbbing. He licked his lip and nodded again, still controlling his breathing and unable to find an answer in his sticky throat.   
  
“I won’t pull your privileges this time.” Franco turned to leave. “Take him back to his room.”   
  
The Orderly came forward. Kevin was wise enough to get up before it reached him, to show he was complying. This way he got to walk back to his room. Kevin took off his shirt once he was there. He looked at the spot of drying blood for a moment. Now that it was going brown, it didn’t interest him as much. He changed his shirt and washed his hot and swollen face. The doctor would help him. He had to trust the doctor and trust that this was all in the plan of the Smiling God. Such belief had gotten Lauren and many others out of here. It would get him out too. Back to his father and siblings.   
  
Kevin smiled.

* * *

Franco drummed his fingers on his desk as he held his phone to his ear. He hated waiting for others to pick up the phone. It made him anxious. The whole conversation would. He was good at hiding it by now.   
  
“Hello, this is Lauren Mallard!”   
  
“What did you do to him?”  
  
“Oh hey Franco, I mean, Dr.Mendoza. I’m guessing you mean Kevin.” Her voice was sunny as always. Pleasing to listen to, and ready to fight him at every turn.  
  
“Who else. I haven’t made a habit of letting you at patients.”   
  
“Are you sure about that?”  
  
“Answer my question.”

* * *

Lauren was doing her hair at that moment. She checked on her curlers, they seemed more important than this whole issue. Kevin had been a nice kid, but he wasn’t going to help her further her career. Maybe when he were older and if he really did have those special powers he was supposed to have. Right now, he had just been a way to pass the time, and someone who was taking _her_ Franco’s attention away from her. Lauren found she was jealous of Kevin and hated that feeling. It was unproductive and ridiculous. Kevin was just a child.

Kevin didn’t have the same interest in Franco that Lauren had. Kevin did not occupy the same space in Franco’s mind that Lauren did. Maybe it would have been easier for her if he had. Love rivals were easy to take care of. It hurt her more that Franco found Kevin to be more medically and psychologically interesting. This had been so for any person that took that place in his mind. After all, and he had told her this himself, compulsive lying and some symptoms of manic-depression did not make her a freak of nature, and being transgender especially did not. That’s what he seemed to like then, Lauren had realised, freaks of nature. People with unusual symptoms and bodies. People who saw things and heard things that no one else had seen and heard before. People that exhibited unusual abilities beyond the realms of science. People that could be used.

Thinking of it that way, Lauren stopped being jealous of Kevin. She wasn’t a person to be used. She would do the using. She would use this man and all his areas of expertise and she wouldn’t care that he could never settle himself on one medical field, so long as she was the only woman in his life and he would give her all that she needed, in all the areas that she needed them.   
  
“Charming as ever, doctor. I told you what I did, you saw it in practice. It was just a little hypnosis. Not the fake kind, but a kind that actually hooks into the thought patterns of a person and changes them. It’s a very useful ability of mine.” She’d never told him this before. Now she dangled it like a tasty titbit. She wasn’t his patient any more, he couldn’t have her for his experiments. She heard a very soft draw of breath. He was analysing that information. “I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want it to get in the way of us, Franco.”   
  
“You should have told me. We could use someone like you. If you’re telling the truth.”   
  
“You know that I am. You’ve seen it in the boy. He woke right up. Not my fault if it had side effects. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m doing my hair.” Lauren hung up.


	5. Travelling

Despite playing it cool with him at first, when Franco called up a second time in a lot worse a mood, Lauren stopped the icy treatment and allowed him to speak.

“All I need you to do is to try and get this bloodthirsty streak out of him.” Franco said. He still sounded a little irritated, but his tone had dropped back to the usual monotone. He could be so boring to listen to sometimes. It was a good job he was so handsome and smart. “There’s also something else. You said this was a real kind of hypnotism, one that links into a persons faults. Now I could never hire you on, not with the current staffing being well and full, but I’d like to hire you to work in my...side business, as it were.”

Ah yes, his ‘side business’. Here was a man with his finger in an awful lot of pies. Lauren had often wondered whether Franco had the ability to be content at all. He had spent his life earning degrees and setting up businesses and practices, many of which he closed down whether they were successful or not simply because he’d become bored with them. Now he had StrexCorp, which mostly funded psychiatric hospitals and other such places, but was also a manufacturer of technologies like no other. Some of them were sold on, but many, like the Orderlies, were used only by him. A waste, if you asked Lauren Mallard, who couldn’t help but think such machines would be ever so useful in controlling the masses and making them money a lot faster. Not to mention, making loyal subjects of the Smiling God much easier to obtain.

“Oh and what would you have me do?” Lauren asked. Her hair was done by now, perfectly curled just the way she liked it. She was putting on lipstick as he spoke to her. She had the air of a woman that didn’t need anyone, but could have them if she wanted. It was professional trustworthy kind of vibe. Good. That’s exactly what she needed. She would be perfect and people would listen to her, or else. World domination was such a lovely life goal.

“I want to see if your skill is transferable into technology. Use your understanding to create something that will change the way people think without having to be directly hypnotised. It could finally bring the Control Collars out of Beta.” Franco replied.

Lauren’s face lip up in a newly made-up smile. He couldn’t see this of course, but her smile had a way of actively creeping into her voice. You could just sense it. 

“Now that is an idea I can get behind, sir.” Lauren replied. “I can’t say no to that. I’ll see what I can do for Kevin and for you but you do know, hiring me on means paying me a wage right, I won’t work for free.”   
  
“I’ll write you up an official contract.”

* * *

 Kevin was happy to see Lauren again. She was, after all, his first real friend. Maybe his first ever friend. He couldn’t say for sure though, after all, he didn’t remember his life before now. Even so, he bubbled up with joy and rose from his bed when she appeared.

“Lauren! You came to visit me!” Kevin’s smile was already starting to spread, Lauren noticed. It was taking on the large, tight nature that showed all of his teeth. The kind of smile that pleased a Smiling God. It looked really good with his full lips and ghostly pallor.

There was something special about this child alright but it was something inside of him, something not entirely obvious the way his physical mutations were. Sadly, Lauren was not here to just be with him nor was she here to investigate the rumoured psychic abilities. She was here for reasons that almost made her want to smile a little less.

Kevin saw this in her face, even though she were still smiling, and his enthusiasm for her being here started to deflate. “Oh um...you heard about it, huh?”   
  
“Let’s sit down Kevin, I’m not mad at you but let us sit for this anyway.” Lauren motioned to the small table and chairs. Kevin sat. He was starting to feel extremely guilty and sick again. He wished she hadn’t come after all.   
  
Lauren sat with him and took his hands. “Kevin, Kevin, Kevin...what are we going to do with you? It’s not wrong to have violence inside of you, but it has to be directed properly. Do you understand?”

Kevin was looking down at his hands. He looked like a dog with its tail between it’s legs, trying to hide his face so he could avoid being punished. This was not a punishment. It might not even solve their problem. Lauren was almost ashamed to admit she’d never actually thought of trying to make a machine that worked her ‘magic’ for her or better. She needed to understand it better. She really didn’t want to try it again if it were creating such side effects, but she needed Franco in her favour to further her career and he was always watching. Those damn cameras.

“Kevin, look at me.”

Kevin looked up as obedient as a dog too. This was a marked change in his behaviour, Lauren understood. He had listened without that stubborn streak that came from fear, or shy reluctance. He was learning to just do. Lauren loved when they learned to just Do. 

She started to pass her hand back and forth in front of him again. Kevin felt a sense of deja vu, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from following her. Soon they started to close, but he could still see the pattern of her finger. He could see every line of her fingerprint, every curve. He could see the edge of her nail coated in a fine yellow gloss, but bare underneath. He could see the trail of light the finger made as it passed back and forth, up and down. His head was against his chest, but a part of him was still sat straight, watching that ghostly finger dazzle in front of him.   
  
Then he was remembering, or at least sensing the edge of a memory. The smell of blood. ‘Blood’ he heard her say, but his mind was wandering. Kevin got up from his seat, feeling like air. He was lifted a few inches upwards before he sank gently to into a blackness that had no end. It was a gentle fall. Soft and warm, like being held up by a loving breath. It ruffled his clothing and hair. Kevin landed safely on what felt like grass and looked like nothing.   
  
His clothing and hair was still rippling, though the feeling of the gust was gone. His whole body was warm. His eyes pulsed a little in his skull. It was not unpleasant yet. He looked around and saw nothing. Far above him, his chair seemed to be suspended in the air, perfectly still. The glowing pattern of light was still shifting up there, now making a series of interlocking triangles. He felt those triangles weigh heavily on his being. He looked forward again.   
  
The pattern of triangles lit up the empty space in front of him. There was a door. An old oak door. Kevin took a step forward. The crunch of grass, the tickle of it on his bare foot. The sound seemed to echo all around. Kevin crept very slowly forward, feeling no resistance to his passing. He was dimly aware that Lauren was talking. The oak was smooth and hot under his hand but the handle was cold. Kevin opened the door.

* * *

Something was different this time, Lauren could tell. It was different to every time she'd ever done this. This wasn't a successful hypnotism, nor a disaster like the poor girl she'd locked in a coma and never been able to get out.   
  
Still, she had not yet stopped what she was doing, but was disturbed by the relentlessly flickering behind that closed third eyelid. It seemed to be reddening. This wasn’t right. Kevin wasn’t where he should be, in himself but being drawn like a puppet to her. He had...gone somewhere. Lauren stopped what she was doing and tried anxiously to bring him back. Franco would not be pleased if _Kevin_ ended up in a coma.


	6. Furthered exploration

Sunlight. Sunlight so hot that Kevin felt his skin prickle immediately with the heat. There was a dusty smell behind that of desert flowers. For a brief moment he saw a vast sandy landscape, and in the distance, a large mountain. Then he was back, sitting in his chair, in his own body. He felt like he’d had a long nap and was brimming with energy.  
  
“Oh Lauren I---I just saw something!” Kevin tried to articulate his feelings, taking a moment to gather all his thoughts together.   
  
“You saw something?” Lauren’s first instinct was to believe this was something fake induced only by her hypnotism. Then she backtracked and remembered what this child could do, and how he had the ability to connect with his brother from afar (what was the maximum distance? She wondered). Lauren had always believed it, for reasons she couldn’t put her finger on, likely because of her own abilities and the strange nature of the world in general. Outsiders like Franco just didn’t get that. With all his logic he didn’t see how abilities like this were a part of the logic of their desert world.   
  
“Yes! I was floating, but in a nice way, it was very relaxing. Then I saw a door, an old oak door, it appeared in the middle of the vast empty landscape I had been floating through. When I opened the door, there was some kind of desert inside. Or I guess, on the other side. It didn’t feel like the regular desert, though I’ve not passed through a lot of the desert around us, I just know this one was not of the same world. There was a mountain in the centre - I know people say they don’t exist, but I saw it. I feel like if I’d just stayed longer I could have gone through the door and found...something.” The dark hue that had been noticed by Lauren and Franco both crept further over the whites of Kevin’s eyes as he spoke, almost completely taking over them now. Lauren didn’t mention it.

“You believe me right?” 

Lauren’s thoughts had been wandering and she brought herself back into the situation. She reached out and put one of her hands on top of Kevin’s own. His skin was incredibly hot.   
  
“Of course I do. It sounds...important. I’ll talk to someone about it for you, if you like? I don’t think it was something bad. You’re an incredible little boy, Kevin. You’re going to do big things for the world.” She replied.

* * *

_'You're going to do big things for the world'_

Dissenters were already rising. They did not like what StrexCorp was doing and they were keeping it back by sheer force of will. Many would not send their ill, physical or mental, to hospital and practices owned by this company. They would not buy products that had been built by them. But others bought because they identified so much with the sales campaigns and social relation projects, they failed to see the strangeness that lurked underneath.  
  
Like how some people went missing in these hospitals and never came back.  
Like how those who came back were never the same again.  
  
There was a spy amongst those who worked for StrexCorp. They had caught wind of a little boy with extraordinary talents. Dangerous talents that were growing every day. They caught wind of a lie being told, about a father, and a children. Someone had been hired to take care of Kevin in the long term. Someone who worked for StrexCorp. They needed to be taken out, replaced. No more children needed to be raised by StrexCorp. They ambushed the 'fake father' before he adopted the siblings. They learnt all they needed to know about him and his mission and then, took his place. Kevin would be raised by them, raised to hate StrexCorp. Hopefully it would be enough.

* * *

 "So, what do you think?"  
  
Lauren had just finished telling Franco what Kevin had saw and how she felt deep in her bones that it was something to do with the Smiling God. She wanted to send Kevin back if she could. He could be their prophet. Maybe that was why he had been brought here all along.  
  
Franco could never decide whether he truly understood what a Smiling God was supposed to be. He'd shunned the very idea at first, until he'd seen a light so blinding and beautiful it could only come from such a deity. It had finally got him on track, cleared his head. He knew what he had to do. He would be the one who created the perfect human being. Humans would be happy, productive, helpful. They would need little sleep, little food. All their biological imperfections would be nullified. That was his destiny. He had the intelligence and he had the technology. All he needed was time. It was moments like this, as he sat, listening to Lauren but tinkering with a prototype control collar, that he was glad he'd followed his need for learning. He'd spent years of his life studying. To be a doctor. A surgeon. A psychiatrist. An engineer. His grandmother had been worried that he was wasting his life, going from university to university, trying to keep himself in school so he didn't have to work. Maybe that had been somewhat true, until now. He put down his tools.  
  
"I think...you should sign your contract of employment and then help me figure this out."   
  
Lauren fought the urge to roll her eyes. She had leafed through the contract and agreed with it. This would give her just enough flexibility, without seeming too unfair on the other human employees (even though it was). She would work her way up the ranks eventually, of this she was sure. Then StrexCorp would be all hers. Lauren signed the contract with a flourish and handed it over. Franco glanced at it, then put it aside.  
  
"I think that we could use Kevin to study how brainwaves are affected when I hypnotise people." Lauren tried a different approach. "Then, we can work on creating the same changes via electrical impulses. It could take a long time. I might as well see if I can send him back to the old oak door in the meantime."  
  
"Yes. Yes I suppose so." Franco scratched at his beard thoughtfully, looking through her again.  
  
Lauren inwardly groaned, her smile becoming tighter, teeth more harshly clenched. At first she had loved him. He was cold, mysterious, powerful and intelligent. But now his distance had started to irk her. She no longer felt a slight perverted thrill at the way he looked through her and spoke so bluntly and coldly. This was not a BDSM situation. This was simply a man that had trouble connecting with people, preferring and doing better with machines and underlings. Let him have those then. She would get all she could from him, and get her love somewhere else. One day. Even someone as career driven as Lauren also wished for a little man to tuck under her bosom. She'd decided she'd prefer that over someone like Franco any day.

"Is that a yes?"  
  
"Yes. Leave now. I need to prepare everything." 

* * *

Kevin was actually excited to try again. He'd got into reading whilst he were here, and this felt like a great many of the adventure books he loved so much. The kinds of books where people his age did extraordinary things despite their youth. When you knew nothing of life but being in a hospital, those kinds of adventures became intensely appealing. Now, here he was, having his own.   
  
"Are you sure you're ready? It might not work every time and it can be a little fatiguing." Lauren said. She'd joined him shortly after breakfast the next day and explained the general idea. The general idea being that they wanted to see what was on the other side of that door and would be monitored him to keep him safe. That's all he needed to know.  
  
Lauren was a little worried that too much meddling would do things to Kevin's mentally that could never be fixed. She'd never gone multiple sessions with a person before without intended to break them. She recalled her ex-boyfriend. She'd changed him into the perfect little slave, except eventually he stopped being able to do anything for himself. Including go to the bathroom. The more she'd tried to fix it, the worse he'd become, before eventually it had just been kinder to get him to kill himself. Well, she wasn't perfect. Not yet. The greed she felt in what Kevin could possibly find was the only thing keeping her from backing out.   
  
"Yeah! I can do this, no problem. I want to do this." Kevin didn't remember all the extraordinary things he could do aside from this. In his head, this was his only use whilst he were still too 'ill' to live with his family. Usefulness was not so easily measured, but to a child it was.  
  
"Alright. Let's go get started. Doctor Mendoza is all set." Lauren stood up and went to the door, before noticing that he hadn't followed. "Second thoughts?"  
  
"Does he have to be there? He kind of scares me."   
  
"I'm on your side, Kev. I won't let him bully you." Lauren promised.  
  
Kevin smiled and followed her. They took a turn down a corridor that Kevin had never been in, through double doors marked 'staff only' and into a second corridor whose windows were narrower. Artificial light was heavily relied on here and it made Kevin feel a little gloomier. The laboratory however had high windows letting in a lot of sun. Though the blinds were soon closed, that blast of sunlight was enough to remove the slight claustrophobia of being shut somewhere dark.   
  
Franco was already there. He gestured to the seat and Kevin shivered and sat down. He tried not to look nervous as a large metal helmet was strapped to his head. Lauren gave his hand a squeeze, then let go. There was a chair for her too, but she didn't need strapping in. Her eyes flickered to Franco, who nodded. She started the process.  
  
Kevin once more felt like he was existing slightly outside of his body, then blackness. There was no floating, just the idea of sleep. His brain patterns showed as much. Lauren woke him.   
  
"It's ok we need to try again. It's not your fault. We'll go as many times as we need to." She assured him.  
  
Again, again, again. Franco became more frustrated as it went on. Each time Kevin reported he'd seen nothing special. Lauren redoubled her efforts, been more firm and demanding in her words to him when he went under.   
  
Kevin once more felt himself start to float. Ah, finally! He was not afraid. There was warmth again, that gentle guiding breeze. Then, a cold, strong, wet grasp around his wrist. Kevin screamed and started to pull, he didn't want to fall down with this thing. This bloody hand holding so tightly to him. Far below he could hear the raspy breathing of the owner of this arm who had stretched it up to greet him. In the real world, Kevin's body started to convulse. Lauren snapped her fingers to try and wake him but he went on shaking. The EEG was going haywire, trying to keep up with the signals it was receiving.   
  
Lauren grunted and slapped Kevin hard across the face. He woke, felt the pain instantly and started to cry.


	7. For the greater good

"Stop crying." Franco frowned softly.   
  
"I'll get him to stop." Lauren got down to Kevin's level. The cries were not loud by any means, but despite constant coaxing Kevin had been crying for the past five minutes.  
  
Kevin's head hung down, chin touching his chest. His head felt heavy, and his eyes were swollen from the tears. His whole face felt like a hot sack, and he couldn't believe the amount of liquid that was able to come out of him. Then, suddenly, it stopped. Before Lauren even spoke again, his tears stopped and he could lift his head again. Kevin gingerly wiped at his face. This was embarrassing. He'd been chosen to do something important and one scare had made him cry like a baby. He was only glad he wasn't a loud crier.   
  
Lauren handed him a tissue without a word and Kevin blew his congested nose. Franco scooted over the waste bin with one foot, trying not to look at Kevin but instead at his machine. It wasn't broken, thankfully. Kevin was saddened that Franco didn't seem to care that he was upset, as embarrassed as he was. Franco just didn't know what to do in the face of such human emotion. Sadness was awful, he decided to himself. Sadness makes the face ugly, it heats and swells the skin, it irritates the nose and throat. People will be better off if they are just happy all of the time. He would make his pills even more potent to further prevent this awful emotion from entering the human body like a disease.   
  
"Do you feel better?" Lauren asked. Her smile was a normal length and width. It was comforting.  
  
Kevin nodded and dropped his used tissue into the bin.   
  
"Let's go again."   
  
Lauren stood up and put her hand on Kevin's shoulder, rubbing it with her thumb. "Are you sure?" Lauren wanted to go again. She wanted to see what was behind that door. She had seen that door in her dreams. She had felt the power of the Smiling God thrumming just behind it's oak. A blinding cold light leaking from under the door. It was better that Kevin was ready to do this. If he were willing, then it would be easier. 

Kevin sat back in the seat. It was slick with his sweat, as was his shirt, but he didn't care. He wanted to impress them now. Franco put the helmet back on, disgusted by those wet curls, a reminder of the involuntary reactions that Franco detested so. Kevin took some deep breaths, and focused only on Lauren.  
  
This time, when he started to sink, Kevin curled up tightly. He curled up tightly and he closed his eyes. The descent itself was once more too warm and slow to be frightening. He imagined that he felt soft fingers brush against his legs, then his hair as he passed their position. He had no way to judge how long he'd been falling, or whether he'd passed where he needed to stop, or if that were even possible. Kevin felt suddenly very under skilled to do something like this. He was just a poor unremarkable little boy, a sick boy whose own family hadn't been able to keep him around. Kevin shook his head as if to spill those thoughts out of him, or dash them to pieces against his skull. He had to be someone. He could not remember who he'd been before. He didn't know if he were as special as they said, but they trusted that he was and that this was something he could do. Kevin stretched out and immediately felt solid ground beneath his feet.  
  
The child stood, eyes opened and strained against what could not even be called darkness. It was simply Nothing. Kevin walked was purpose only in a forwards direction. He left his arms out in front of him this time only on instinct, his brain forced him to interpret the Nothing as darkness as it had no reference for existing only within a void. His fingers knocked against the edge of something wooden. Kevin gasped and withdrew both arms, placing the injured nail in his mouth. He watched the edge of what he'd hit began a solid, tangible thing once more. Every experience had been different so far, so Kevin hoped that this time he wouldn't be pulled back too soon.   


* * *

"It's going well." Lauren said. She could see what Franco and his science could not. She could see strings attached to a blazing aura around Kevin's body. These strings were wrapped around Lauren's fingers. By concentrating on any one of them she could put to sleep any part of Kevin's brain. When that part was asleep and she spoke, she could plant thoughts and ideas there. She didn't consider herself an expert, Lauren was sure there were people out there much better at this than her. She didn't even know if she could turn what came to her so naturally into something a machine could replicate. But it would be so fun trying. 

It was, in itself, hypnotising for her. Sat there exerting just a little effort here and there to stop Kevin going completely unconscious but to also keep him in this special state that seemed to allow him to travel to somewhere no one under her power had reached before. There was some kind of power inside of this child. It wasn't the third eye. It wasn't the tattoos that became murderous tentacles. Those were just side effects of something he'd been born with. Lauren now considered it fate that Kevin and only Kevin had been _legally acquired_  by StrexCorp. They didn't need Cecil. Not to study these kinds of mutations. Not to use to achieve their goals. All they needed was Kevin. He was their prophet.   
  
She let herself go back into her memories, not needing to fully concentrate at this point.   
  
Lauren had been six years old. She had been playing with her first pet, a fluffy kitten named Meowtilda. She had the cat on her lap and was using a finger to scratch at it's furry tummy. Meowtilda purred and wiggled from side to side. Suddenly, Lauren saw a soft glow around her little kitten and felt her finger catch on something deep blue and silky. Meowtilda had stopped moving. She was still breathing but her eyes had glassed over. Even at six, Lauren had understood that so long as she kept a hold of this little string, her cat would not move. She had an incredible power over this other life. She had sat there for a while, just holding her limp kitten, then she let go of the string and Meowtilda blinked, wriggled onto her front and trotted off like nothing had happened. She had been eager to try again almost instantly. 

Now here she was, with a human life in her hands. 


	8. Old Oak Doors

To say that Kevin was scared was an understatement. He could hear his own heart beating hard and fast in his chest. He was vaguely aware that his skin was warm and that his stomach was turning. However, those feelings were floating away from him. It was like a second him had been made. One that didn't feel any of those things. The Kevin that still felt them was holding on though, an anxious little goblin at the back of Kevin's skull. His closed eye throbbed beneath the stitches.   
  
The doors handle had been colder than expected, but on the other side it was hot. Kevin stepped through into a desert not unlike he'd always lived in, but also unlike that desert completely. The colour, the texture, the heat that bore down on him from too many suns...none of that had been experience, not in this part of his life, not in the past he'd forgotten. The handle on the other side was hot. It was hard to pull the door closed, so he left it half open. This would prove to be a very wise decision. 

Kevin stood there transfixed for a long while. He knew that this was his real self, his real body. There was no flesh, no skin to burn, no tongue to grow dry, but he still felt all of those things. It was if the power of this place exceeded all of that. No matter what your state of being was, you could not simply exist here. If you were here and a part of this world, it was a part of you. Kevin quivered. His physical body quivered also. It was not a quiver of fear, it was a quiver of excitement and burning curiosity. What was here that gave it such power?  
  
The first step was the hardest. Before, in the place that Was Not, his body had held almost no weight. Now it came crashing back and he had to learn how to balance himself again the way a toddler did. It didn't help that he was standing on sand, which wasn't exactly known for being even and easy to walk on. Kevin made himself get moving. He didn't know where he was moving to, or if he'd be able to get back again, only that he had to move. The sand was blistering hot under his feet and he could feel his skin threatening to burn. It was only the mercy of not truly being here that prevented it from doing so. But the heat, oh the heat remained. Kevin stumbled along, and as he moved he found that he was circling that great mountain with it's light house and blinking light. He was moving and coming to nothing. He was moving and it was almost like the mountain was an eye watching him.   
  
The child took his eyes off of the mountain just in time to stop himself running into someone. It was strange to see another person in this vast empty landscape. The person was hunched over, writing feverishly into a book. They hadn't noticed Kevin at all, and Kevin did not want to move any closer. Kevin couldn't describe in words the feelings that rose up when he looked at the hunched figure. He recognised the stains on the persons clothing as blood. He somehow knew that the blood belonged to other living things. Kevin held his breath. He had forgotten that he technically wasn't even here and that none of his footsteps had left a print or even shifted the sand, even though it felt it all so realistically under them.   
  
The writer closed the book with a satisfied sigh and placed it beside them. They then reached forward and started to dig into the sand in front of them with their hands. Kevin's eyes were drawn to the book. It looked like badly stitched together sheets of notepaper, bound by...something black. Some kind of skin. Kevin inched his way forward. He had to have it. He had to have that book. His hands closed around it. Even though he'd not been able to influence anything else here, Kevin was able to pick up this item as though it belonged to him. The moment it came to his chest, the ground started to shake. Kevin watched as the figure seemed to fade away and so did the ground.   
  
Kevin stumbled back, tripped and landed hard on his face, his arms still tight around the book. He waited for the world to stop heaving and then cautiously rose his head. Kevin unfurled his arms from under himself and got up, quickly grabbing the book again. The book he'd already started to think of as his book. The world had indeed dropped away, as if something hungry had swallowed it whole. The gash was deep and radiated heat. It was a vast mud womb cut into the Earth. Kevin was awestruck. He had never seen something so beautiful before. He stroked the leathery feeling cover of the book and believed he felt it grow warm to his touch. Warm because of the power of this vast construction. There was no doubt in his mind, this was an act of the Smiling God, to show him that his true purpose in life was to spread the word.   
  
Kevin threw back his head and laughed heartily, to the sky, to the mountain with it's lighthouse and flashing red light, to the mud womb and the sand dunes themselves. He laughed and jumped and twisted and writhed in the air. Turning, he ran back towards the door, not exactly knowing where it was only that he'd get there faster by running. The shape of the door appeared before him as he theorised. He could see it on the horizon and stopped for a rest when he felt the Earth shake again. This was not as before though. No change of time, but something that was happening right now. Kevin looked back and saw the Earth rising and falling in alternating intervals. He was fascinated until he saw something rise out of it. Something black, with a gaping hungry mouth. A creature with many legs that started to shovel Earth into it's mouth. A creature that was heading towards him. Kevin started to run again. He ran as fast as his already tired legs would carry him. He was not tired because of the activity, but because he was using so much energy to stay in this world. Kevin did not want to be trapped here, or to die here, leaving his body in a coma or worse. He wanted to live and spread the word. Clearly this was a test to see if he were worthy. The door loomed in front of him and so did his death. Kevin could feel the ground behind him falling away as the creature got closer and closer.   
  
Kevin threw himself forward and barrelled through the door he had thankfully left open. The moment that happened, he woke.  
  
-  
  
Lauren screamed, something she was instantly embarrassed about, as the machine exploded behind them. The lights in the room flickered and went out. The only light seemed to come from Kevin himself. Even Franco could see the outline of the childs spirit and something forming between his tightly clenched arms. The closed third eye was bleeding profusely. The blood was thick and dark against his pale skin, streaking down his face, dripping from the end of his nose and his trembling lips.   
  
Kevin's eyes opened, almost glued together by his own blood. They were black as pitch. Kevin smiled.


	9. Chapter 9

Before Lauren could ask whether or not Kevin was ok, the child pulled the helmet off of his head and sprung to his feet. He was most certainly clutching some kind of book. A relic that had come from the land beyond their land. His smile was wide, wider than Kevin had ever smiled before. It showed so many teeth. It was completely unnatural and struck Franco as completely wrong. He was almost _scared_ to see such a thing. Lauren did not look scared though. She looked like this was the best possible result. Suddenly, she scared Franco too. He'd only gotten into this because of Lauren. He loved her. It was hard to admit, but he did. Her ideas had increased the amount of people leaving this place and becoming functioning members of society. She'd shown him the light of the Smiling God and it was all he'd ever thought about perfection justified. Lauren had allowed him to do what he must in the name of this sacrifice. But...  
  
Wasn't the perfection intended to create a world where people produced as much as possible and were happy with their place in life, no longer weighed down by their flaws and unhappiness? This seemed...like something else. A smiling child covered in his own blood. Something darker. Something more aimed on control. Control? Had he really been thinking of using Lauren's gift to control others? Franco pressed himself against the wall. The aura radiating from them both was sinister and oppressive. It was so cold in here. So so cold and so bright. Franco inched his way towards the door.  
  
"Don't leave, doctor. I have some wonderful news." Kevin said without so much as looking in Franco's direction. The doctor stopped. "I have seen Heaven." 

-

It took some convincing, but Lauren managed to get Kevin to agree that he should clean himself up before delivering his news. He wouldn't let them touch the book he was clutching in his hands. Lauren dipped a cloth into warm water and started to gently wide his face. Kevin didn't stop smiling. Kevin didn't blink. He only closed his eyes when Lauren asked him too, so she could wipe the blood that was starting to congeal in the creases of his eyelids. She liked him better with his eyes closed, they made her blood run cold. Kevin's eyes were like two dark caves. No, _darker_. They sucked in all the light around them and were cold to look at.   
  
It was hard to tell what she should feel about this. On the one hand, she was certain that Kevin was telling the truth. He'd seen Heaven. The Heaven that the Smiling God lived in and would come from when they deserved to be Devoured. On the other hand, she was looking at a living puppet right now. A mannequin with stretched skin and empty eyes waiting for the creator to fill them. It had to be worth it though. She had to keep Kevin under her control. Her sweet little prophet.   
  
"You're so gentle and kind, Lauren. I'm surprised you don't have children yet, at your age." Kevin told her. His voice was different now. Not in tone, or pitch, or even tempo. It was different in a way that Lauren couldn't describe. It was not different in how it sounded. It was different in the way it affected her. She felt like she had to listen, even though he was only a child. Tonight she was going to do some serious brain training of her own to try and resist this part of him that she had helped to awaken.   
  
"Well, I'm not so old. I'd say I'm only ten years older than yourself, give or take a year." Lauren replied. She dropped the bloody cloth into the crimson stained bowl. "There, you look a lot better. Now, are you going to tell me about that book you brought back with you? You've done something really incredible. Kevin, you're a prophet."  


* * *

"You're a prophet..."  
  
Yes, he knew that. He knew that this was what he had been chosen to do. He didn't care that Dr.Mendoza had taken his leave after all. Lauren was the one who had always believed. Lauren was the one who had showed him the love of the Smiling God. She would work beside him, and they would tell of the joy of the Smiling God. He couldn't do that here though. He had to get out there. He had to escape and spread his words that way.   
  
"I have seen Heaven. Heaven is a desert with too many suns. Heaven is a desert with a mountain in the middle and on that mountain is a lighthouse, with a blinking light on top. It is a place where a great mud womb is to be dug into the Earth and carved with the words of the Smiling God. There I saw a kneeling man, who was praying to the Smiling God. He gave me this book. This book is the word of the Smiling God. A measure of it's activities, it's presence, and all the stories of those who have ever met it. Lauren. I want you to take this and use it as you grow. I know that you will. I can't do much right now because I'm a child. I need you. I need you and your power to do great things. Do you understand?" Kevin spoke like a man much older than his years. He spoke like an ancient prophet in a mountain cave, beard long and white, body curled and shaking but mind sharper than any other living being.  
  
"I-" Lauren choked on her words. "I understand."   
  
Kevin held out the black-skin bound book. It was centipede skin. Kevin knew that without knowing it. He held it out. He saw how she hesitated, then grabbed it with great conviction to hide that hesitation. She shivered.   
  
"Don't tell the doctor. Lie to him if you must. I don't think he's ready." Kevin smiled wider. It seemed like he could smile forever. Wider and wider. It made him feel great.  
  
-  
  
The boy had to go. Franco didn't even want to ask about that book. He didn't want to know. He just knew that he couldn't let this child so much as walk around here any more, whispering his dark secrets into other patients ears. Franco had the Orderly that served Kevin give the child an extra high dose of sleeping pills that night. Franco waited for a while to give the pills time to take affect.  
  
Franco opened the door with his keycard. The soft beep that granted him access seemed too loud to his anxious ears. So did the soft swish of it opening and the click of it closing again. Franco hadn't felt this genuinely anxious in so long. It made his guts hurt. The Orderly who had given the medicine was stationary in the corner. Franco clicked his fingers and it blinked at him, acknowledged him and came forward. "Tie him down."   
  
The Orderly moved forward and strapped Kevin firmly to the bed. Franco took a deep breath and took out a hammer from his pocket. Not a medicinal hammer. This was no test of reflexes. He would keep Kevin in here and get rid of those poisonous thoughts that had been put into his head, then he would get him the Hell out of here. 


	10. Keep you here

A simple fracture, non-displaced. That was all that was needed. Both knees would be broken. Kevin would be unable to walk and when they started to heal, he'd break them again. It was for the childs own good. He wasn't himself. He couldn't be wandering around in this state, infecting others with it. Somehow he simply knew that this was infectious. When Kevin was strapped down, Franco began his work.  
  
The hammer came down very firmly. It made a harsh thump, but nothing cracked. Kevin stirred despite his drugged state. It was hard to tell whether he'd opened his eyes or not. They were nothing but pits now, pits in the darkness. The Orderly's form was highlighted in the moonlight. Franco took strength from that solid form, so much stronger than his own weak human vessel, and struck again.   
  
This time Kevin did cry out in pain. There was a crack, and his kneecap took on the shape of a lump of mashed potato. Now the other. Franco was aware of something squirming around underneath Kevin. He recalled the tentacles that had so easily ripped through metal and circuitry. It was time to act fast. He struck again at the other knee. This time it was too hard and too low. Kevin's tibia fractured and the child screamed out in pain.   
  
The Orderly's programming responded and one of it's fingers turned into a needle filled with pain killers. Franco nodded and the drug was administered. He'd never named any of the drugs he'd created. Maybe he should. Maybe he should get out of this and become a chemist properly. Franco struck again, getting the knee this time. His blow was once again harder than expected because of his nerves. The knee segmented into pieces. Already it was swelling up. Deep purple against the bright skin. Franco had to work quickly to split them the way he'd intended.   
  
Kevin was sobbing and whimpering on the bed. His head thrashing from side to side, the only part of him that could move.   
  
"Why did you do that?" He asked. Under normal circumstances, Franco wouldn't have answered. He didn't have to answer to a child. This time however, the words came out of his mouth without his permission as if Kevin were a higher being who had ordered him to speak. He didn't get to script them in his head first. What came out was the brutal and honest truth. A secret he'd wished to keep because it showed his fear and weakness now it was told.  
  
"You're becoming dangerous to me and to others. I'm afraid of what you've become and what you will do with this new self. I'm going to keep you here, in this bed, even if I have to make you physically unable to move in order to do so. I will shock this poison out of you, if it's the last thing I do. Sometimes the old methods are the most effective, after all." Franco found himself ending those words in a grimace. "There. It wasn't so bad, was it?"  
  
Kevin was still crying, tears slipping down his cheek. Even in the semi-darkness, Franco could see he was still smiling through that pain and those tears. It was if he'd become utterly unable to stop. Franco shivered.   
  
-  
Lauren was not back in the morning. Kevin didn't know it then, but he wouldn't be seeing her again until he was a grown man. At that time, he'd be thinking of her very differently, not remembering her at all from his youth. He woke with a head full of fog and legs that felt like two boulders attached to his hips. They weren't completely numb, a dull and painful throbbing had localised itself in his kneecaps. On the left leg, there was also a pain just below that. Kevin dreaded what would happen when his body fully woke up and that pain came out to say good morning.  
  
He wasn't strapped down any more, but nor did he have much of a chance of sitting up without aid. Kevin's body was starting to feel hot, feverish. He pulled the blankets covering him roughly to the side. Kevin wasn't surprised to see his legs all bound up. He remembered exactly what had happened with a sense of sadness and pity. Dr.Mendoza was afraid. He didn't understand what was going on. That was very sad. He almost made him not want to smile.  
  
It would be an hour before any true relief came. By this time, Kevin was a sweating, grinning mess on his bed. His clothes and hair were matted against his skin. Patches of red had bloomed on his cheek and forehead. The Orderly who administered the painkillers checked his temperature and sent it electronically to Dr.Mendoza. Kevin really was burning up. The child was just glad that he could un-grit his teeth after having them clenched against the pain. The Orderly left and Dr.Mendoza appeared soon after. It was hard to tell how soon. There was no clock in here, which meant time seemed to slow down, every minute blooming into an hour of it's very own.   
  
Dr.Mendoza took Kevin's temperature to check what he'd been sent and shook his head. "It'll be fine. Here, take these antibiotics." It was the kindest that Franco had ever been. He poured Kevin some water from the jug that was always full beside his bed, and helped him to swallow the antibiotics. These were regular public prescription drugs. Not that Franco didn't have some of his own, they were just in the stages of being fine tuned in order to be safe for humans.  
  
Kevin stared up at Dr.Mendoza. The doctor stared back. It was hard to meet those empty eyes. He looked away and coughed. "This will be as hard for me as it is for you. If all goes well, you should be able to return to your family fairly soon. Don't try any...don't make this harder than it needs to be."   
  
Franco felt like a changed man after what he had witnessed. He had brooded on it long into the night, barely getting any sleep. Lauren had manipulated him, he realised. She had never cared about science or medicine, except for the ways it benefited her directly. She had always been looking for this Smiling God of hers. He'd almost been taken by it too. He thought of all the poor people he'd mutilated, looking for the perceived perfection that the Smiling God demanded. Guilt? Was it guilt that he felt? It was hard to say. He wanted to do right by Kevin now. Get rid of this unhealthy mindset and to a foster family that would never speak the name of such a God again.   
  
"Within the hour I will be administering shock theory. This will be followed by regular hypnotherapy and aversion therapy." Franco felt more like himself now. Kevin wasn't replying, but he knew the child was listening. "Any questions?"  
  
"Do you really want to do this, Dr. Mendoza?" Kevin replied. He was calm, too calm. He didn't sound like himself.  "You don't need to be afraid. I know you've tried to let the light of the Smiling God in before, and you can have that again. I know this is scary but you're not alone in this journey. I may be young but I can be there for you. Don't do this, doctor."  
  
That voice...it was inside of his brain. It was rumbling around inside of him so that it started to sound like his own thoughts. Franco exited the room without saying a word. He had an Orderly go into Kevin's room and gag the boy (but not before disabling it's hearing until it left the room). The instructions were clear. Remove the gag only for feeding, disengage hearing whenever in that room.   
  
Even so, Kevin's words had done their damage. Franco sat at his desk and his own inner voice repeated those words back to him. "Shut up! Those aren't my thoughts! That little monster said them, they are his thoughts! I am right, I am right! I'll take that damn book from him, wherever he's keeping it and I'll destroy it, maybe then he'll shut up and get out of my damn head..." He downed a double dose of his own sleeping medication and passed out at his desk. 


	11. Shocks and bones

The tentacles had writhed in his skin in response to the danger he was in. Something was hindering them. They could not manifest without the energy being channelled through the conduit of his third eye. His third eye which has always been like a large crystal, sucking in magic and energy from the world around it to transform him or allow him abilities that others would pay good money to possess. Now his eyes only sucked in all the light around them and gave nothing back.  
  
Nothing but muscles that stretched too far back over teeth and blood that oozed from under the lid of his third eye when he was put under stress. Kevin continued to smile regardless. He smiled because he felt so much bliss. He didn't need any drugs to make him feel this way any more, it had been cleansed out of him by the power of the book and by the face of the Smiling God itself, radiating cold searing light. Even so, he had yelled out when his bones were broken. He'd whimpered and whined when they hurt the next morning. He'd tried to twist the doctor around his fingers the way Lauren had with himself. Dr.Mendoza was stronger than Kevin thought though. After seeing the way the doctor was so easily disturbed, Kevin had stopped fearing him and started to see him as a challenge to overcome. Nothing could stop him with the light of a Smiling God inside of him. He was a prophet.  
  
They wheeled him out of the room when his time came. The new room smelled strongly of cleaning chemicals. It tugged at a memory in his head, trying to get him to recall where he's seen such stark grey walls and such an uninviting assortment of tools around a straight metal 'bed'. It didn't tug for long or very strong. His thoughts didn't have room for such things as that when he was so focused on being happy instead.   
  
"Where is the book?" Were Dr.Mendoza's first words when he came into the room. Kevin didn't answer, he just grinned. "I checked under your bed whilst you slept, and you didn't stash in anywhere in the room before I strapped you down, so where is it?"   
  
Still Kevin said nothing and Franco could not look at that grinning skull for too long. It was a skull that he saw that each and every time he looked over. A skull with it's skin stretching tighter and tighter over the bones the more Kevin tried to widen his smile. There was nothing natural about this at all. Not about the boy. Not about his behaviour. His hands were almost shaking as he prepped Kevin for the shock therapy. Almost. Inside was a storm, but muscle memory made the work easy. If the book wasn't in Kevin's hands, perhaps it wasn't dangerous. Perhaps it had gone back to wherever it came from.  
  
An Orderly and a human assistant were both here today. The human assistant for administering the shocks, the Orderly for maintaining vital signs. Franco made sure Kevin was good and gagged. Besides, he'd need something to bite down on. That wasn't the only reason for the gag though. He didn't want to feel Kevin's voice digging into his brain again. Next time, he might not be able to resist the charming way the child could order you to do anything at all. He didn't need his thoughts re-arranged, his very morals and attitudes instantly switched. He almost wanted to remove Kevin's tongue entirely, or sew up his mouth like he had that darn eye. For reasons he wasn't sure of, he knew this would be a bad idea. Instead, his cold gaze was fixed on the monitor which would read Kevin's vitals as he ordered the first shock.  
  
The needle on the machine jerked upwards a couple of notches. Kevin's body let out a spasm and then lay still. He whimpered and closed his eyes, laying back against the bed. The shock had been so brief that Kevin wasn't sure if it had actually hurt. It certainly hadn't been pleasant.   
  
"Stronger."   
  
The next shock was unmistakable. It lasted longer and was more intense. When Kevin lay panting on the bed, Dr.Mendoza addressed him in a severe tone. "There is no Smiling God. You are not a prophet. There is no Smiling God."   
  
Those words were the only things Kevin could think about. His body felt twitchy. His skin hot and tight. There was a ringing in his ears. He focused on those words and tried to laugh at them. He knew what he'd seen. He knew...  
  
Another shock.  
  
Kevin was shocked three more times before the machine was removed. Dr.Mendoza had considered just using the shocks to kill Kevin, but again, something told him not to do it. It was if something in the world would be unbalanced if Kevin died now. This was something he was never going to express out loud. He prided himself so much on being a man of logic and was deeply ashamed that he had ever slipped away from it. He wouldn't and couldn't allow that to happen again. No one was going to get control of him like that again.   
  
"Now boy, tell me, what did you see when Lauren hypnotised you?"  
  
"I saw the face of a Smiling God." Kevin said once his gag was removed. He wished he could wipe his mouth, he was drooling like a baby.   
  
"Wrong. You saw nothing. You had a deep sleep and you dreamed of a monster." Dr.Mendoza gave a signal with the nodding of his head and the Orderly's left. He would keep the machines here though. There was much work to be done. 

-  
  
Lauren hurried home that night. She was clutching her bag closely to her. She had no fear of being mugged as she were more than capable of taking down most people or Things that would try. No, this was a clutch of excitement. Her face was drawn tight in the mixture of excitement and anxiety that one feels when the object of your excitement requires you to be in a certain place and you simply can't get there fast enough. Her hands fumbled with the keys to her apartment, dropped them, picking them back up, dropped them again. She realised she was shaking.  
  
Forcing herself to take a couple of deep breathes, Lauren bent down and slowly picked up her keys. This time she was able to find the lock and turn. She let herself in and closed the door, hurrying to the kitchen table. Here she sat with her bag  on the table and her hands were shaking again. Slowly she slipped the black book out of the bag and then placed the book down again. This was an object of great power and importance.   
  
Her fingers traced the spine and cover of the book lovingly. Centipede skin, she was sure. How wonderful. Lauren opened the book. She had expected, as most people would expect, an ordinary book inside. Uniform white paper, with printed words, all of the same size. This was not what she had here. This was an eclectic mess of paper of different colours and sizes, torn from notebooks and office memo pads. The writing was sometimes tiny, neat and legible. Other times it was scrawling and smudged. As she read she became both confused and almost disappointed. This seemed to be someone's diary. It was their interactions with the Smiling God and nothing more. They had learnt some of it's behaviour, and had some stories to tell, but nothing more. Disappointing but not useless.   
  
Lauren was musing on this when there was a firm and heavy knock at the door. She jumped. It was Dr.Mendoza, had to be, he'd discovered that she had the book and wanted to take it back. What an old fool he was! It was almost heartbreaking the way he finally realised that a young, smart and beautiful woman like her wasn't actually into him but into what he could give her. It was angering when he'd denounced the Smiling God.   
  
_"I've had enough of this. I am a man of science and I say this had gone too far. I won't work with the boy any more. I'm going to get this nonsense out of his head and then send him to a nice foster family who will raise him right! It's wrong for him here, and I wish I had seen it sooner. What I was ever thinking when I took them I'll never know..." Franco had ranted._  
  
_"You were thinking of power then, Franco. As you should be now! The Palmer children have some seriously strong psychic abilities, more so than anyone else in this are. Franco come on, listen to me." She had grabbed his hand very firmly. "Think of our future together. All the people you were going to help, the way your machines and influence would run the town and spread and spread until the whole globe was smiling and productive. We can still make that happen, but you need to calm down. All of this can only be achieved with the light and love of a Smiling God."_  
  
_He had seemingly believed her up until that point where he pulled his hand away very sharply and raised it as if to strike her before dropping it back to his side._  
  
_"No. I've had enough. It is my way or nothing any more. I want you out of my sight, you are no longer welcome here and I'm deactivating your keycard." Franco replied._  
  
_"You can't do that! After all I've done for you, you can't do any of this without me!" That and she's already stolen a lot of his blueprints for machines and such, she just needed a facility where it was easy to produce them. Ah well, another challenge it was then._  
  
_"And after all I've done for you, I would have expected a little more respect. Take your leave and also, you can find someone else to complete your transition. I wouldn't have any part of you anywhere near me again." Franco had looked more flustered than she'd ever know him. Still, she had been the one who was seething the most when she left._

But then Kevin had called her in and secretly entrusted her with this book. Lauren supposed it had only been a matter of time before she were found out. Lauren quickly stuffed the book into her bag again, grabbed a long knife from the kitchen and went to the door. She looked through the peephole and was surprised to see one of her neighbours. She opened the door, leaning against the frame. The knife was in her hidden hand and her smile was as wide as ever.  
  
"Can I help you?"  
  
"You left your key in the door, thought I ought to tell you."   
  
Lauren took the key from her neighbour. "Oh gee, thanks, I had no idea." They said an awkward goodnight and Lauren closed and locked the door this time. She forced her tense hand to relax on the knife and let go. There was redness where she'd been holding on so tightly. Lauren massaged her arm and picked up her bag. She had to put this book somewhere safe until she had properly established a congregation and following. Maybe Franco was too stupid to come after it, but someone might. People had ways of finding out the most secret of things around here. 


	12. Red and Yellow

 Kevin wanted to be strong. He did not feel fear as he was strapped to the table for the second time. He was still unable. He could feel the frustration radiating off of Dr.Mendoza and wondered which of them would wear out first. His knees were screaming. That was the only reason he was red and sweating. He wondered how he hadn't passed out yet. Even after the shocks, he was still hopelessly awake. His head was starting to feel soft.   
  
It had been so long since his vision that Kevin was starting to wonder whether it had all been a dream. He couldn't remember what he'd done with the book. He supposed the shocks might have had something to do with that. An Orderly fed him every day, taking off his gag only long enough for the feeding them gagging him again. He couldn't understand why they didn't want him to talk.  
  
After the 5th session, Kevin cried out for the doctor to stop. He hadn't even realised that the word was going to burst out of him. It clawed it's way out of his throat, thick and ugly and hot. "Stop!"   
  
Dr. Mendoza looked over. There were burns on Kevin's skin where they were shocking him. He didn't know how much longer he could keep shocking the child before he damaged him for good. Maybe he wouldn't have to. Kevin was crying and his smile had finally slipped. The cries gurgled, switching between sobbing and hysterical laughter. Franco had the Orderly unstrap Kevin and sit him up the best they could. This at least stopped him from choking.  
  
"Please stop. I can't stand it. Why...why this..." Kevin sobbed.  
  
Had he really forgotten, or was this just a ruse? Franco checked Kevin's vitals. The curious pulling at his brain he'd experienced when Kevin spoke before was now gone. That was the sign he needed. This was just a little boy once more. A little boy with broken knees that were just starting to heal up. They were healing stiff though. At this rate, he'd never be able to walk again. Well, Franco could fix that.  
  
With the end of Kevin's freakish affliction came Franco's coldness once more. He felt in control once more. The next day he did not deliver another shock, but strapped Kevin up again to re-break his knees. Kevin thrashed when he realised what was happening. His cries and pleads became a background noise that Franco could easily ignore. The knees under Kevin's skin looked terrible. They were lumpy and badly healed. They wouldn't look any better after this, but he'd at least be able to walk for short periods of time. Enough to leave here and into the arms of his fake family, where Franco could keep an eye on him (or so he thought). The bones broke like twigs.  
  
-  
Kevin held his head over the bucket and threw up. The physiotherapist was ruthless. Kevin's head was swimming and his guts lurched again, nothing but spit came out. Kevin spat a couple more times and then wiped himself off. The Orderly put him back into his wheelchair. Kevin had always been pale, but he almost matched the walls behind him now. In fact, he was almost going grey. It hurt to stand. It hurt to bend his legs. It hurt to do anything with his lower half. Kevin did not look at his legs if he could help it. They made him feel ugly more than his third eye even had.   
  
His life had become a dream, fleeting and terrible. He vaguely recalled the first round of shocks. He vaguely recalled the second breaking of his legs. He could not recall most of his sessions. Today, he felt like he'd woken up into a world of Hell, throwing up into a bucket.  
  
"Times up. Time to walk again." The Orderly hurled him to his feet and placed him between two bars. Kevin gripped them to stop himself falling forward and tried to keep as much weight off of his knees as he could.   
  
"I'm done. Please let me be done..." Kevin replied. The Orderly walked away and stood at the end of the bars. They would wait there until Kevin reached them. If he fell he could either get back up, or crawl. Both options were cruel and painful. Kevin started to walk. He cried, both in tears and in voice. After three steps he had to stop. His stomach was flopping again and his arms shook as if they too were about to break apart.  
  
Suddenly,a blistering anger took over like none other. His eyes locked onto the Orderly. Suddenly it didn't matter how much it hurt, he lurched forward like a man possessed. The lights flickered. The other two patients in the room and their Orderlies looked over just in time to see Kevin manifest tentacles from his body and tears the robot apart. The other two Orderlies reached forward to try and contain him and faced the same fate.  
  
"Please, we didn't do anything to you!"   
  
It didn't matter. Kevin wrapped his tentacles around the neck of the person who had spoke as the other cowered in a corner. He squeezed until their head hung limp on their neck. The smell of piss entered the room and leaked from the patients trouser leg. Disgusting, Kevin thought. It was time to get a much nicer smell in here. He brought the body close and used his fingers to push in the eyes of the dead patient. They weren't as soft as people might think, and squelched terribly when pressed into the skull. Blood leaked down from the sockets.   
  
The patient in the corner whimpered but could not looked away as Kevin bit into the patients neck. He was being lifted up by his tentacles and felt no pain. His busy appendages plunged into the meaty flesh of the patients stomach and wriggled up inside of his ribcage, snapping the bones as they pulled outwards and splayed the patient open like a slab of meat. Kevin was soaked in blood and laughing, choking on this foreign life fluid and laughing. Now all the pain had gone away, all the worry, all the sickness. He'd never felt so good!  
  
Kevin felt a sting in his neck and reached up to pull a needle from it. The world swam grey and then black.  
  
When he woke, he was clean, strapped up and very confused. Had he dreamt of the physiotherapy? He didn't know. His head was foggy again and thinking on it too hard made him feel sick.  
  
"Son?" A man with features not unlike Kevin's own was sat beside Kevin's bed. He reached forward to feel Kevin's hot brow, then started to pour a cup of water.   
  
Franco had decided that this very environment wasn't doing Kevin any good. That and he had to admit that he was now deeply afraid of Kevin. He wished he'd never been so greedy and so foolish as to believe he had any rights to these wonderful children. He could not have hoped to understand or control them. Regular humans would just have to do.  
  
The man paid to be his father had been replaced by an impostor that hated everything Franco stood for. He did not know what Kevin was capable of above the manifestations he'd been told of. If he'd known this child was capable of murder he wouldn't have taken the job for any amount of money, not even in the name of taking down StrexCorp. Well, maybe not any amount...  
  
"Dad...?"  
  
"It's me, Kevin. I know you probably don't remember, but I'm taking you home. I'll get you well, and we can be a family again. I'm so sorry you went through this, Kevin."   
  
Kevin started to cry, this time in joy. His father, his family. He was wanted somewhere.


	13. Epilogue

For years to come, Kevin would have nightmares. In these nightmares he was burning up. The sun was beating down on him relentlessly and the ground below him held a strange heat, as though something underneath was burning. He tried to run and find shade. Up ahead there seemed to be a pool of water, but when he dived into it the water turned red and sticky. Blood, the smell, the feel, the taste. It all felt so real and though he were disgusted, it also thrilled him to be in that pool.  
  
He would dream of not being able to move. A giant hammer hung in the air, some invisible device pulling it back, back back...until it came crashing down upon his knees. Kevin's eyes were held open in the dream, forcing him to watch as his knees became twisted lumps. Then his body was start to jerk and shake as though electrified, causing his destroyed limbs to flop around uselessly.   
  
He would dream of Dr.Mendoza's looming face and grabbing hands. He would dream of the Orderlies and they cold metal grasps. Each night he woke, sweating and screaming, his breathing turned to wheeziness and choking sobs. His father would rush in and he would cling to that man with all his might. He still did not remember him, or his siblings, but as time went on they became familiar in a new way. They became his family even if their past together seemed short to him.  
  
The most important thing they did was get him into a real therapist. The hypnosis he was put under did not delve into his brain in quite the same way that Lauren's did, but it did help him to talk and to rest easier at night. The more sessions he attended, the better he felt. He also remembered more. He remembered what had really happened following his first loss of memory, his first trauma. He remembered the face of the woman he'd seen cut up. He remembered that her name was Freya. He had wept. A deep seething hatred for Dr.Mendoza and his company did not shift. He was not afraid any more, he was angry. He would never forget what StrexCorp had done to him.   
  
The years went by and he grew up with this hate, but also with passion for radio and a talent to match. The Tones that Franco had so feared were soothing to those who heard them, easily planting the information into their minds where it would stay longer than regular memory would have allowed. People liked Kevin. Kevin who had worked so hard to forget why his legs tired so easily and why his knees didn't look the way other peoples did. Kevin who would look his old friend, Lauren Mallard, in the face and see nothing but a viper as she brought her force down upon him and broke his weakened bones once more. Kevin would be unable to walk without aid for any longer than ten minutes. That was exactly how she liked him, practically bound to his desk and easy to catch. The rest, as they say, is history.  
  
\--  
  
_History, the past, is one thing, dear listeners. But the future holds all kinds of promises. In the future there is a man who wakes suddenly in a desert otherworld, in a bed beside another man whom he loves but is also troubled by. He will wake remembering suddenly that this all started long before the assault at the radio station. Long before Strex entered the town properly. This started with a small hospital on the border between Desert Bluffs and Night Vale. Or...did it? There seems to be something else, further back..._  
  
\--  
Kevin stood in front of the ruined building that had once boasted that it was the finest mental and physical rehabilitation facility and research centre in the world. The sign in front had been pushed over by someone. Kevin bent down and brushed sand away from that prominent StrexCorp logo. He traced it with a finger and shivered. No words could describe the cocktail of emotions that fuelled that shiver. He used his walking stick to get back up.  
  
It was dangerous for him to be here. This was technically Night Vale now, no longer Desert Bluffs. That didn't feel right. This was always be part of Desert Bluffs to him. He stood there and looked up at the eclectic mash of architecture. The dirty windows, some broken or at least cracked. The plants that grew stubbornly from cracks in the sides and up around the foundation. He wondered if he should just turn back. His mind had worked hard to repress his memory of everything that went on in there after all.   
  
Kevin rose a hand to the useless inactive control collar that he used as a comfort. His finger found the release button that he could now open himself. The clasp clicked softly and he let it fall to the ground. It was time to know who he really was.  
  
As he entered the building, he was hit with a powerful headache. He staggered back against the doors, his walking stick clacking against the frame and walls as he stumbled and then gained his balance again. Even with his eyes closed he could see everything as it had been. He saw himself as a child, in a third person point of view, being brought in through these doors. He was unconscious. Kevin walked forward more steadily than he'd done in years, eyes closed, guided by his inner sight.  
  
The third eye strained against old stitches, the blood-shot whites just visible as the swollen lid inched it's way apart. The foggy image frustrated Kevin. Still he followed it around the building. He saw himself in the Sun Room with Lauren. He saw himself in his bedroom, and the images there switched rapidly between him sat reading, eating, being prodded and poked by Dr.Mendoza, read to by Lauren, then strapped down to either have his knees broken or to be shocked. When the knee breaking came around, he felt sympathy pains. Kevin moved on. He need only stand outside of the room where his first trauma had happened. Freya...on the table, cut open. Her blood and her guts all over him. Then memories of anothers innards in his hands. A stranger. A victim. The image started to fracture. Kevin grunted in frustration. He knew what he must do.  
  
Kevin braced himself against a wall. The blood he smelled right now was not a memory but his own. It was the blood that seemed to endlessly leak from his closed third eye whenever he tried to use it. He took his Smiling Knife from it's holster and reached up. He teased the tip under the already lose stitches and started to cut. It was painful, and there were holes. Perhaps he would get an infection that would go right to the brain and kill him. It was amazing that he hadn't already.  
  
The third eye opened for the first time in years and Kevin felt tears slip silently from his primary eyes. All of his eyes were open now but they did not see the wall in front of them. Kevin slumped to the floor as he remembered where this had all really started. It had started with a sick little boy, and his much healthier twin brother. A twin brother whom Kevin had met years later and thought he were a double. But no, they did not have doubles. They were singular points in time. In some places only one of them was real. In some places they had never know each other at all. In this place, they had been born together. This was his real family. The tears came faster. All that time lost. He loved his adoptive family, but to think he and Cecil were...  
  
Then, he remembered the Together Place. After all this time and all this betrayal he doubted he could go back there. Yet, he found it was as easy as breathing. This special place had always been waiting for him. Kevin reached out to Cecil across an unknown distance.   
  
Cecil answered.   



End file.
